To like Kirstie Allsopp?

Pretty much all of my friends and colleagues seem to hate her! Something about setting women back 60 years.

I like her - and all the craft stuff. I don't see that she is setting women back or being anti-feminist. Surely feminism is about choice so she is choosing to live the way she does - and has the freedom to do that.

In interviews she always seems pretty straightforward and doesn't hide who she is. She is a bit posh but that is who she is - no point hiding the accent! Maybe I am biased because I love all the crafty homemaking type stuff. (And her clothes.)

"For some women, the wedding-veil canopies, crocheted jellyfish mobiles and calli-graphy place cards in Kirsties Vintage Home (more recession-friendly than her previous books and television series, it has tips on how to transform old fabrics and furniture into modern-day treasures) are not only off-message but demeaning. Sally Bercow called one of her shows 'condescending, too-good-to-be-true, middle-class nonsense.

Allsopp is unflustered by such criticism. 'When people call me a 1950s housewife trying to take us back  thats so wrong, she says. 'I consider myself a feminist. I have the most balanced and equal relationship with my husband. Likewise at work with Phil [Spencer, her 'TV husband of the past 13 years]. Hes paid the same as me and I expect to get paid the same as any of the men on Channel 4."

My main beef with Kirsty Allsopp is that she's got a very big mouth and a pea sized brain.

I really struggle to understand how someone so very expensively educated an be so very, very thick. She has no GCSEs and yet is so deluded she thinks she's appropriate casting for Question Time, or public policy roles such as housing tsar.

Her homefinding business had to go into liquidation, her home design "business" licence has been a spectacular markdown, and I can't recall a single episode of LLL where her negotation skills have added anything to the process. (Her clients have paid ceiling price on every purchase made on the show, according to a survey on House Price Crash).

She was a vile on Celebrity Apprentice, having hissy fits like a spoilt child when she didn't get her way.

She was boasting about buying British the other day on Twitter. Turns out she was boasting about her collection of Hunter wellies. Which are American-Chinese and have been for years.

She's a pox and the sooner she's off baking cakes for Ben instead of pontificating about things she patently knows zero about, the better.

comely the biggest problem I have with Kirstie Allsopp though is the fact that she does not seem to understand why someone would have different political leanings to herself. That's the big difference here. My friends are Tories but they can see another person's point of view. When KA has been on things like QT, she has shown time and time again that she doesn't understand anyone who is not in the same boat as her.

showtunesgirl You like your friends in spite of their political beliefs because there's more to a person than their political beliefs. It's just lazy to say I dislike her (the person) because she thinks x,y or z. Conversely, I have no problem if you dislike her because she keeps banging on about x, y and z.

I don't mind her, but she's little more than a salesperson on LLL. I dislike the way she tries to sell the property to the couple no matter what it's like - it could be a rubbish house and she's claiming it's perfect. I lost respect for her when she started telling a couple the 'obvious solution' for a house would be to extend it at the back when it was clear to me (having had a similar house) that an extension wouldn't work at all. I realised it was all total b**l**t! And the builders the couple hired proved me right!

If you're going to dislike someone for their political beliefs, be damn sure you understand what they actually believe. A lot of people, asked why they don't like Tories, will basically say something only marginally more sophisticated than "Because they believe in putting babies on spikes". And it just makes them look stupid TBH.

I love her and Nigella. I may not agree with either's political beliefs but I still like them. Nothing better than when channel 4 shows episode after episode at the weekends, especially when it's cold outside.

She thinks that everyone should stay at home with their parents until they can afford to move out and buy their own place. Er, Kirsty, with the economy being what it is at the moment, I would STILL be living at home instead of renting my nice flat in London.

I like her. I was devastated to read on a different thread that she was unpleasant. It's nice to hear some others say she's nice. Maybe she's just 'normal' and has good days and bad days.

I really don't think she should be implicated in people over-stretching themselves financially. That was always going to happen. I enjoyed her crafty programmes too, nice to see different techniques being done, even if it is really being one by a minion.

Really don't see why it's acceptable to dislike someone based on their politics. Especially when it comes across as reverse snobbery.

300 grand for a cottage on Exmoor is beyond most local people's wildest aspirations.

I have no idea how people knit - my gran used to knit really complex jumpers with patterns and shapes on out of her head. God knows how. I haven't seen a wool shop for ages (I remember really enjoying going to wool shops when I was a kid and looking at the different balls of wool and poking them).

Like:Her common sense & breezy persona.Her dress sense (clearly that divides opinion, but I love the boots, scarf & hourglass-flattering dress combo. I'd dress like her if I had the confidence --and the money--). And I like the fact she's an attractive non-stick-insect woman on TV (as far as i can tell) who wears what she likes and not what she's been told to wear (same goes for Sarah Beeney).- Her upfront & feisty response to people who give her flak on Twitter for having a skin condition is admirable (she developed blotchy patches on her face during pregnancy & gets a lot of nasty comments about it).- the chemistry between her & Phil really is genuine and you so rarely get that on TV.

Dislike:- whatever her feminist credentials in the workplace, the comments I read in an interview that she does think women should defer to men in the home made me a bit .- the craft stuff a bit too twee for me.- she's a Tory.